Poetry Day 2: Sound

What is the definition of rhyme?

• Two or more words or syllables having a similar or identical sound

• Repetition of the same consonant sounds in a sequence of words

• The use of a word that mimics the sound of the thing it represents

• A pattern of stressed and unstressed sounds in a poem

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.8

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

Which rhyme scheme is used in the following stanza?

When the fiddlers take to the twilit square
I can see their notes drawn long and fair
Across the evening's welcomed gloam
In shapes like the pines of my mountain home

• abac

• aabb

• aaaa

• abab

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

Identify the sentence as either alliteration or onomatopoeia:

The screech and boom of the fireworks kept Ma Jenkins up throughout the night.

• Onomatopoeia

• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

Identify the sentence as either alliteration or onomatopoeia:

The plinking from that leaky faucet is irritating me!

• Onomatopoeia

• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

Identify the sentence as either alliteration or onomatopoeia:

That lackadaisical llama left his wallet near the well.

• Onomatopoeia

• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

Identify the sentence as either alliteration or onomatopoeia:

The poor pauper never tried to tell me otherwise.

• Onomatopoeia

• Alliteration

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

Match each type of rhyme with its corresponding example.

• Exact End Rhyme

• This I'll never know/Just why you asked me how

• Internal Rhyme

• You might become quite ill/If you eat fish from a shell

• Slant Rhyme

• Straying far from the nest was the best test/That she could rest her hopeful eyes upon

• Eye Rhyme

• I've never found a place to be/As happy as in this apple tree

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

What is the main sound device at work in the poem below, and what is its effect on this poem's meaning?

It SHUSHES
It hushes
The loudness in the road.
It flitter-twitters,
And laughs away from me.
It laughs a lovely whiteness,
And whitely whirls away,
To be
Some otherwhere,
Still white as milk or shirts,
So beautiful it hurts.

—Gwendolyn Brooks, "Cynthia in the Snow"¹

• The onomatopoeia throughout the poem reinforces the quietness of the snow, using words that sound soft, such as "shush" and "whirls."

• The consistent rhyme scheme reinforces the simplicity of what the snow means to the speaker.

• The onomatopoeia throughout the poem reinforces the speaker's distress at being trapped outside in the snow by using words such as "flitter."

• The consistent rhyme scheme provides a clearer understanding of the fearfulness and worry the snow brings.

Tags

CCSS.RL.7.4

CCSS.L.4.5

CCSS.L.5.5

CCSS.L.6.5

CCSS.RL.2.4

How does the break in the rhyme scheme help create meaning in the following poem?

Till Laura, dwindling, a
Seemed knocking at Death's door: b
Then Lizzie weighed no more b
Better and worse, c
But put a silver penny in her purse, c
Kissed Laura, crossed the heath with clumps of furze c
At twilight, halted by the brook, d
And for the first time in her life e
Began to listen and look. d

—Christina Rossetti, "Goblin Market"²

• The single unrhymed line at the end of the stanza helps convey Lizzie's longing to stay with Laura.

• The break in the rhyme scheme throughout the stanza helps convey the difficult relationship between the two sisters.

• The single line that starts the stanza is emphasized because it rhymes with no other line and highlights Laura's suffering.

• The break in the rhyme scheme toward the end of the stanza emphasizes how Lizzie is becoming independent and can break away from expectations to care for her sick sister.

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.8

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9

Read the following poem and identify the rhyme or sound devices used in it. Describe what these devices add to the meaning of the poem.

It was her voice that made
The sky acutest at its vanishing.
She measured to the hour its solitude.
She was the single artificer of the world
In which she sang. And when she sang, the sea,
Whatever self it had, became the self
That was her song, for she was the maker. Then we,
As we beheld her striding there alone,
Knew that there never was a world for her
Except the one she sang and, singing, made.

—Wallace Stevens, "The Idea of Order at Key West"³

Tags

CCSS.RL.11-12.8

CCSS.RL.8.10

CCSS.RL.8.5

CCSS.RL.9-10.10

CCSS.RL.9-10.9